Stars, Eyes, and Minefields
by cutekittenlady
Summary: During a boring sleepless night, Lance comes across a star.


Lance never thought that he'd ever get sick of looking at the stars. And in truth he still wasn't.

But at the moment, he'd trade the constant interstellar view from the castleships windows for just the smallest glimpse of earth's blue sky. He'd also be happy to trade his cold plain cabin for his room back at home. At least there he had his books and games to play when he got bored.

Instead he settled for an aimless walk around the interior of the ship whilst the rest of the team slept soundly in their rooms. Well while MOST of them slept soundly. Pidge had the sleeping habits of chimp high on raw caffeine.

So it was to his greatest surprise that Lance found Keith, of all people, sitting in the holodeck staring into literal space.

Usually Lance would find the room empty. Save for those rare nights when Coran stayed up to personally oversee the ship's course through the choppier parts of the universe. The two would talk about their respective homes, finding solace in their shared homesickness.

Keith, on the other hand, would spend his sleepless nights on the training deck. Exercising himself into literal exhaustion before heading back to his room to sleep. Not that he always made it.

The number of times Lance had found Keith sound asleep, slouched against one of the walls of the training deck, were hard to count. But every time he did, Lance found himself either waking the other and helping the sleep-deprived paladin back to his room or taking a seat next to the other and just watching Keith's chest rise and fall in his sleep.

But he had never caught Keith on the holodeck before.

Lance stood in the doorway watched the other's back as he stared out at the endless expanse of stars.

There had been a time where Lance would have taken the opportunity to sneak up behind and startle Keith during the rare moment of distraction. But after so many battles, so many near death experiences, he couldn't seem to find the motivation for it anymore.

He and Keith still had their little spats, but their intensity had shrunk to an almost non-existent degree. Leaving behind a series of light-hearted banter, and casual jibes.

True arguments had become a rarity between the two. But when they did occur they were about far more serious matters than they used to be.

Their last fight had only been a few days before.

Lance and Keith had been performing a bit of reconnaissance when a patrol of galran ships spotted them and began to give chase. The Blue Lion would have been captured had it not been for the timely intervention of Red, attracting the patrols attention.

Keith had driven Red into a literal minefield in an attempt to shake off the group of pursuers. Predictably, one of aforementioned pursuers set off a mine, blowing themselves to smithereens. Less predictable was how the explosion set off literally every other mine in the bunch.

The Red Lion had made it out in one piece, but not without a bit of damage on its exterior.

The whole time this had been going on, Lance had been on edge. Wondering if one of the explosions would engulf the lion, and it's pilot along with it.

When Keith had returned to the castle after successfully dealing with the pursuers, Lance's first instinct had been to take the other in his arms and ensure that he wasn't some kind spectre that would disappear any moment.

However, the more passionate side of his character had taken over, stifling the unfamiliar feeling in his chest. Lance had gone off on Keith like a light, demanding to know what the other had been thinking.

Needless to say a fight ensued.

They hadn't really spoken to each other since.

That was how the two's more severe fights usually ended up. They'd spend a good few days pretending the other didn't exist, before allowing their feelings to subside and returning to their usual banter.

Taking a breath, Lance entered the holodeck and took a seat next to Keith.

"Hey." he said quietly.

"Hey." the other responded not taking his eyes off of the array of stars before them.

Lance allowed a few moments of silence to pass between them before speaking up again.

"Couldn't sleep?"

Keith shook his head.

"Yeah. Me neither."

For the first time Keith's eye's shifted from the stars to his shoes.

"You still homesick?"

Lance sighed before answering. "Of course. Are you?"

Keith didn't respond right away.

It had take some time for Lance to figure out why the red paladin never seemed to be attached to their home to the same degree that he and the others were. Upon discovering the truth, however, Lance had made it a point to pull back on some of his more… personal comments.

In particular, he'd made sure to stop passive-aggresively implying that Keith didn't care about the others. He'd really believed that at first. It was the only conclusion he had felt he could draw given Keith's unwillingness to allow Pidge to search for her family.

But Lance supposed that when you were an orphan, it made your priorities just a tad different.

Over time, though, Keith appeared to come around to the others points of view. And while he still never took part in their friendly reminicenses of their home planet, he stopped trying to shift the subject whenever it came up.

His attention was attracted to a quiet sigh from Keith.

"Kind of." he admitted.

Lance smiled. That was about all he would get out of him on that subject, he was sure.

"Lance?"

"Hm?"

"I'm sorry."

He looked at Keith. "For what?"

"Getting upset with you before. I should've handled that better."

"You shouldn't be apologizing." The unfamiliar feeling once more rose in Lance's chest. "I was the one who went off on you."

"Yeah, but you only did that cause I made you worry about me."

"Who said I was worried about you?"

Keith chuckled. "You worry about everyone."

Lance looked away shyly. "Is it THAT obvious?"

"You're not really the hardest person to read."

Another moment of silence.

"I never said thank you." Lance rubbed the back of his neck awkwardly. "For saving me, I mean."

"You don't need to. We're teammates."

"Well, yeah, but you do it all the time."

Keith snorted. "C'mon, how often would that come up?"

"Well the was the airlock thing."

"Yeah, but I was being chased by a killer robot. The airlock was a pretty good way to get rid of it."

"Yeah, but before that you helped save me from Sendak."

"Pidge saved you and Shiro. Then you saved PIdge, and I kicked Sendak into a forcefield. Hardly the same thing."

"Still…" Lance muttered.

"Seriously, it's not a big deal. You'd do the same thing for me."

It was the truth.

If Keith was in danger, Lance felt like he'd happily face a whole fleet to make sure he'd return safely. It was a scary thought. Keith not being there when he got back.

"Just don't do that again alright?" The pleading in his own voice surprised even Lance. "You scared me- I mean us. The team. And me. Mostly me."

"Right." Keith's reply was quiet. "I'll try to be more careful in the future. I'd do it again though. Afterall, I couldn't just let them take you."

"Thanks."

"Don't mention it."

Keith's gaze returned to the massive array of stars before them. But Lance's eyes could only focus on the one at his side.


End file.
